Aristotle

“ For as men exhibit art, wisdom, and intelligence, animals possess, by way of compensation, some other physical power. This is most conspicuous in the examination of infants, for in them we see, as it were, the vestiges and seeds of their future disposition; nor does their soul at this period differ in any respect from that of an animal; so that it is not unreasonable for animals to present the same, or similar, or analogous appearances. Nature passes so gradually from inanimate to animate things, that from their continuity their boundary and the mean between them is indistinct. ”

“ And when they have to return from a great depth, they hold their breath, as if they were reckoning the distance, and then they gather themselves up, and dart forward like an arrow, desirous of shortening their distance from a breathing-place. And if they meet with a ship they will throw themselves over its sails. ”

“ The brain lies a little above the eyes, and is continuous with them; and when the outside skin of the eye is taken away, a bright object shines through it, like a bright ring of brass. Through the whole of its body many strong membranes are extended, which are much stronger than in other animals. It breathes strongly for some time after it has been dissected, and there are some slight movements of the heart; it also continues to contract its sides, but not the other parts of the body. It has no distinct spleen; and it hides itself in rocks like the lizard. ”

“ In aquatic animals and those called fish, the tongue is still the organ of taste, though it is indistinct, for it is bony, and not capable of free motion. In some fish the roof of the mouth is fleshy, as in some cyprini among river fish, so that, without careful examination, it appears like a tongue. That they have the sense of taste is quite clear, for many of them delight in peculiar food, and they will more readily seize upon a bait formed of the amia and other fat fishes, as if they delighted in the taste and eating of such baits. ”

“ From these considerations it is plain that every female contributes to the semen, if this appears to take place in any one class of animals, for the barren animal differs in no respect from the other, except that it does not produce an animal, and this because it was formed by the union of both sexes. For this reason all the seminal fluid of the male does not appear to be productive, but some parts are barren, when not properly compounded from both sexes. And when women have lascivious dreams, the same affections of weakness and debility often occur, as if they had been lying with a male. ”

“ Our first subject of consideration must be the parts of which animals are made up, for these constitute the chief and the whole difference among them; either because they have them or are without them, or these parts vary in position or arrangement, or in any of the differences mentioned before, in form, size, proportion, and difference of accidents. First of all, then, we will consider the parts of the human body; for, as every one can best understand the standard of money with which he is most familiar, so it is in other things. ”

“ Some kinds of animals burrow in the ground, others do not; some animals are nocturnal, as the owl and the bat, others use the hours of daylight. There are tame animals and wild animals. Man and the mule are always tame, the leopard and the wolf are invariably wild, and others, as the elephant, are easily tamed. ”

“ All the blood is in a vessel called the veins, but in no other part of the body, except the heart. The blood of all animals has no sense of touch, nor has the excrementitious matter in the stomach; neither have the brain, nor the marrow, any sensation of touch; but wherever the flesh is divided, the blood flows in the living subject, unless the flesh is perishing. It is the nature of the blood to have a sweet juice, as long as it is healthy and a red colour, and that is bad which either by nature or disease is black. ”

“ Those animals in which there is a distinction of the sexes use sexual intercourse, but the mode of this intercourse is not the same in all, for all the males of sanguineous animals with feet have an appropriate organ, but they do not all approach the female in the same manner, but those which are retromingent, as the lion, the hare, and the lynx, unite backwards, and the female hare often mounts upon the male; in almost all the rest the mode is the same, for most animals perform the act of intercourse in the same way, the male mounting upon the female ”

“ The wild bees do not live by gathering honey from flowers like the bees, but are entirely carnivorous, for which reason they frequent the neighbourhood of dung; for they pursue large flies, and when they have taken them they tear off the head and fly away, carrying the rest of the body with them. They will also eat sweet fruit. This, then, is the nature of their food. They have rulers, like the bees and wasps; and in proportion to the size of the wild bee these rulers are larger than those of the bees and wasps. Their rulers also keep in the nest, like those of the wasps. ”

“ Nor is it absurd to suppose that these birds change their voices or their colours, for the dove utters no sound in the winter, unless it may be on a fine day in a severe winter, when it will utter its sound to the astonishment of those that know its habits; and as soon as spring commences, it begins to utter its voice: and, on the whole, birds make the greatest number and variety of voices at the season of coition. ”

“ Spiders have the power of emitting their web as soon as they are born, not from within their bodies, as if it were an excrement, as Democritus says, but from the surface of their body, like the bark of a tree, or like the ejected spines of some animals, as the porcupine. They will attack and surround with their web animals larger than themselves; for they will attack small lizards, and beginning at the mouth, will emit the web until their mouth is covered, and then will approach and bite them. ”

“ As the summer advances it utters another voice, not quick and varied, but simple; its colour also is altered, and in Italy it is called by another name at this season of the year. It only shews itself for a short time, for it lies concealed. ”

“ Animals are not all in good health at the same season, nor in the same degrees of heat and cold. Their health and diseases are different at different seasons in various classes, and on the whole are not alike in all. Dry weather agrees with birds, both in respect of their general health and the rearing of their young, and especially with pigeons; and wet weather, with few exceptions, agrees with fish. On the contrary, showery weather generally disagrees with birds, and dry weather with fish; for, on the whole, abundance of drink does not agree with birds. ”

“ The eyes of some persons are large, others small, and others of a moderate size—the last-mentioned are the best. And some eyes are projecting, some deep-set, and some moderate, and those which are deep-set have the most acute vision in all animals; the middle position is a sign of the best disposition. ”

“ All birds with webbed feet live near the sea, or near rivers and ponds, for their nature teaches them to seek what is advantageous for them. Many of those with divided feet live near waters and marshes, as the anthus in the neighbourhood of rivers. Its colour is beautiful, and its mode of life good. The diver lives near the sea, and when it plunges into the sea it remains as long a time as it would take a man to walk over a plethrum of ground. This bird is less than a hawk. ”

“ Cows desire the bull. They are so taken up by their passion, that the cowherds cannot manage them. Mares and cows shew the vehemence of their desire by the swelling of their genital parts. Cows also, like mares, make water very frequently. The cows also mount upon the bull, and follow, and stand beside him. The younger animals, both among horses and oxen, are the first to desire sexual intercourse; and in fine weather, when their health is good, the vehemence of their desire is still stronger. If the manes of the mares are cut, their desires become weaker, and they are rendered more gentle. ”

“ In men this period of life is shown by the change of voice, and not only by the size but by the form of the pudendum and of the breasts in women, but especially by the growth of hair on the pubes. The secretion of the spermatic fluid commences about the age of fourteen, the power of reproduction at twenty-one. Other animals have no hair on the pubes, for some have no hair at all, and [Pg 112] others have none upon their under side, or less than on their upper side, but the change of the voice is conspicuous in some of them. ”

“ It is, however, true, as they say, that the lion is afraid of the fire, as Homer also writes, "The burning faggots which he fears when urged against him;" and that he observes the person who strikes him and attacks him; and if a person aims a blow at him without hitting him, the lion, if he can rush upon and seize him, does not do him any injury, nor tear him with his claws, but shakes and frightens him, and then leaves him. They are more disposed to enter towns and attack mankind when they grow old; for old age renders them unable to hunt, from the disease which attacks their teeth. ”

“ In Scythia there is a kind of bird as large as a bustard, which produces two young ones. It does not sit upon its eggs, but hides them in the skin of a hare or fox. It watches them from a neighbouring tree all the while it is not engaged in hunting its prey. And if anyone approaches them, it fights and strikes with its wings, like the eagle. ”

“ All the actions of animals are employed either in sexual intercourse, or in rearing their young, or in procuring food for themselves, or in providing against excessive heat and cold, and the changes of the seasons. For they all have naturally a sensitiveness respecting heat and cold, and, like mankind, who either change their abodes in cold weather, or those who have large estates, pass their summer in cold countries and their winter in warm ones; so animals, also, if they can, migrate from place to place. ”

“ When some of the wild bees wander from the nest, they turn aside to some material and form another nest, such as are often seen on the surface of the soil, and in this they work themselves out a ruler; and when he is grown he goes out and leads them with him to take possession of a nest, in which they may dwell. No one has ever made any observation on the mode of sexual intercourse in the wild bee, nor on the origin of their offspring. Among bees the drones and kings have no stings, and some of the wasps also are without stings, as it has been remarked already ”

“ A male fœtus usually moves more freely in the womb than a female, and the parturition is not so long. If a female, the parturition is slower. The pain in the birth of female children is continuous, and dull; in the birth of males it is sharp, and far more severe. Those who, before parturition, have sexual intercourse, suffer less in the process. Sometimes women seem to suffer, not from any pain of their own, but from the turning of the head of the child; and this appears to be the commencement of the pain. ”

“ Under the influence of cold, milk does not coagulate, but becomes fluid; by heat it is coagulated, and becomes thick. There is no milk in any animal before it has conceived, or but rarely; but, as soon as it has conceived the milk is produced; the first and last milk are useless. Sometimes milk has come in animals not with young, from partaking of particular kinds of food; and even in aged females it has been produced so freely when sucked, as to afford nourishment for an infant. ”

“ Man has the thinnest skin in proportion to his size. There is a mucous, glutinous fluid in the skin of all animals, less in some, more in others, as in the skins of oxen, from which glue is made; and sometimes glue is made from fishes. When the skin alone is cut it is insensible, especially that upon the head, from the absence of flesh between that and the bone. Wherever the skin is without flesh it does not unite again after being cut, as the thin part of the cheek, the prepuce, and the eyelid. ”

“ The elephant arrives at puberty, the earliest at ten years of age, the latest at fifteen, and the male at five or six years old. The season for the intercourse of the sexes is in the spring: and the male is ready again at the end of three years, but he never touches again a female whom he has once impregnated. Her period of gestation is two years, and then she produces one calf, for the elephant belongs to the class of animals which have but one young one at a time. The young one is as large as a calf of two or three months old. ”

“ When animals are divided in three ways into aquatic and land animals, because they either breathe air or water, or from the composition of their bodies; or, in the third place, from their food, their manner of life will be found to agree with these divisions. For some follow both the composition of their bodies and the nature of their food, and their respiration of either water or air. Others only agree with their composition and food. ”

“ Some incredible things are also told of their swiftness, for it appears to be the swiftest of all animals, whether marine or terrestrial. They will leap over the sails of large ships. This is especially the case when they pursue a fish for the sake of food; for their hunger will make them pursue their prey into the depths of the sea, if it retreats to the bottom. ”

“ There are membranes in all sanguineous animals. Membrane is like a dense thin skin, but it differs in kind, for it is neither divisible nor extensible. There is a membrane round every bone and every intestine, both in the greater and smaller animals; they are inconspicuous in small animals, owing to their thinness and small size. The principal membranes are two, which surround the brain, one round the bones of the head, and this is stronger and thicker than that round the brain itself; and after these, the membrane which surrounds the heart. ”

“ At the season of sexual intercourse, the seminal ducts of the male are full of fluid, so that a white matter escapes when they are pressed. These passages are divided, and originate in the diaphragm and the large vein: at the same season the passages of the male are conspicuous, and may be compared with the uterus of the female. When it is not the season of sexual intercourse, they are less conspicuous, from not being in use. In some fish, and sometimes, they are not visible at all, as it was remarked of the testicles of birds. ”

“ It is very evident that the life of one man would hardly suffice for the observation of all these facts even in a single class of animals; but, as I have said, there were writers before the time of Aristotle who provided for the tastes and tables of these fish-eating Greeks a most exquisite apparatus from the rivers and seas of Greece, especially in Sicily, which has been remarkable for its wealth ever since the reigns of Gelo and Hiero, and had surpassed the rest of Greece not only in its knowledge of nature, but in the art of poetry. ”

“ It is quite plain when animals desire sexual intercourse; for the female pursues the male, as hens pursue the cock and place themselves beneath him, if the male is not desirous. Other animals also do the same. But if all animals appear to have these affections with respect to sexual intercourse, it is plain that the causes must be the same throughout. This bird, however, has not only the desire of receiving, but also of emitting semen. ”